Breast-feeding gets boost at Burlington's airport

Mamava unveils the country's first 'lactation station' in the airport's lounge area

Aug. 29, 2013

Five-month-old Eloise Dryden (right) of Burlington is held by her mother, Nikki Dryden, alongside Cassie Lindsay and 4-month-old Maggie Lindsay, before breast-feeding in the new Mamava lactation station at Burlington International Airport on Thursday. The private space is located beyond security so traveling moms can breastfeed or pump in a relaxing environment. / EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS

Written by

Dan D’Ambrosio

Free Press Staff Writer

The first Mamava lactation station at Burlington International Airport provides a private space located beyond security so traveling moms can breastfeed or pump in a relaxing environment. / EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS

Creator Sascha Mayer describes the first Mamava lactation station at Burlington International Airport which provides a private space located beyond security so traveling moms can breast-feed or pump in a relaxing environment. / EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS

Cassie Lindsay (left) holds 4-month-old Maggie Lindsay alongside Nikki Dryden and 5-month-old Eloise Dryden, all of Burlington, while exploring a new Mamava lactation station at Burlington International Airport on Thursday. The private space is located beyond security so traveling moms can breast-feed or pump in a relaxing environment. / EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS

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SOUTH BURLINGTON — Eloise Dryden and Maggie Lindsay, 5 and 4 months old, respectively, checked out Thursday’s unveiling of the Mamava breast-feeding and pumping station at Burlington International Airport. The station is the first Mamava in the country. A slight smile flashed over Eloise’s face. Maggie jammed her fist in her mouth. The Mamava was a hit.

The best friends’ moms were pretty pleased as well, particularly because the Mamava station occupies a space on the second floor, post security, where there used to be pay phones. Gates one through eight are nearby.

“This is amazing, every airport should have one of these,” Maggie’s mom Cassie Lindsay said. “It would make traveling so much easier to be able to plan at the gate. Babies don’t follow a flight schedule.”

That was the whole idea for Mamava co-founders Sascha Mayer and Christine Dodson, both of whom work at JDK Design in Burlington. Mayer is brand strategy director for the firm and Dodson is an account director. Both women have dealt with the difficulties of trying to breast-feed their babies and travel for their jobs and their lives.

Mayer remembers trying to use a breast pump in the airport bathroom, “which is not OK.”

The Mamava offers security, privacy and a clean, well-lit space outfitted in Corian, the same solid surface used for countertops and food preparation. John Abrahamsen, a designer and project manager for G3K in Springfield, Vt., which is manufacturing the Mamava, said Corian is the perfect material for the job.

“Everything in there is meant to be used and cleaned,” Abrahamsen said. “My involvement has been to get the materials right, to get the feelings right, what the colors are going to be in there.”

The colors are bright and cheerful with two facing benches in white Corian and a fold-down table between them. An outlet to power breast pumps is below the table. The curved ceiling and recessed lighting give a sense of spaciousness, even though the “lactation station” only takes up about 20 square feet, according to Gene Richards, director of aviation at Burlington International Airport.

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Richards said he was approached by Mayer several years ago about making Burlington the first airport in the country to have a Mamava. Richards told her he would love to do it.

“A lot of people breast-feed in the public, we totally welcome that if you have that comfort level,” Richards said. “But for people who want privacy, we want to make sure they have a place to do it.”

Burlington’s Mamava is sponsored by Zutano, a children’s clothing manufacturer in Cabot. Co-founder Michael Belenky said it was an easy decision to get involved with Mamava.

“We feel like this is such an important piece to acknowledge the needs of working mothers, and address the balance between taking care of their babies and going back to work,” Belenky said. “It’s not an easy transition. We think it’s important to promote breast-feeding, making breast-feeding an accepted and supported part of our culture.”

Now that support for breast-feeding is written into federal law, Mayer said she felt it was a good time to launch Mamava.

“The Affordable Care Act makes it a legal mandate if you have more than 50 hourly employees, which is a lot of places, to provide a space other than a bathroom for breast-feeding, and there’s legislation in the works that goes across all worker classes,” Mayer said.

The Mamava unit at Burlington International Airport would sell for about $3,500, Mayer said. The company is also developing “pop-up” portable units that would sell for around $1,200 for use by companies and others who have an intermittent need.

“A school for example might not have a breast-feeding mom every year but when they do they can install a Mamava,” Mayer said of the portable units.

Mayer’s motivation for starting the company, she said, was not so much profit as it was fairness. She read a New York Times article in 2006 that detailed how executives at Starbucks were treated much differently than baristas when it came to access to private space for breast-feeding on the job.

“The idea that I had the privilege, but a teacher, a nurse, a woman at Walmart wouldn’t have the same privilege is a social justice issue,” Mayer said. “That’s what we’re trying to solve.”

Michael Jager, founder and chief creative officer of JDK Design, is also a partner in Mamava, along with G3K. He said the company is actually talking to Starbucks about the Mamava, along with other corporations such as Marriott Hotels, and even Chinese government officials.

Mamava does not plan to stop with its breast-feeding and pumping station, which Jager said could wind up in locations across the country and around the world.

“Once you solve a problem like this we can solve other design problems,” Jager said. “Carriages, the pumps themselves are things that need to be looked at. We have the right and the responsibility to keep the movement going, and make it as clean and smart for women as possible.”